aaFiasco is a role-playing game by Jason Morningstar, independently published by Bully Pulpit

GaMouse Guard

Set-up[edit]
The players first select the playset and roll dice (four per player—two light, two dark). The
players then go around the table, taking turns to choose a die. Using the value of the die, the
player selects a group, or an element of a previously selected group, from a list provided by
the playset to establish relationships (one for each adjacent player), needs, objects, and
locations. Each pair of adjacent players has a defined relationship and one other element (a
need, an object, or a location; that is central to the relationship). After all dice have been
used, they are all returned to a central pool to be used as the game progresses.
After all dice values have been used, each player will share with each neighbor:
• One relationship
• One need, object, or location
The players then discuss who their characters are, what they are called, and how they relate
to each other, and the objects, needs, and locations their characters share. Once this is
decided Act One is ready to begin.

Act One[edit]
In Act One, for each player's turn, she or he may choose either to Establish or to Resolve.
Should the player choose to Establish, the content of the scene—people, place, conflict—is
determined by the player. Doing this allows the player to set up the scene as they wish.
However, the resolution of the scene or conflict is determined by the other players, who will
choose a light die (a good resolution) or a dark die (a bad resolution) to give to the player in
the middle of the scene. The player must accept the resolution, acting out or narrating events
accordingly.
Alternatively, should the player choose to Resolve, the other players dictate the
circumstances of the scene: the characters with whom the
e the action starts. The game is for three to five players, and takes between one [12]  and
three[2]  hours, including two acts and an aftermath. The things required to play are:

• four ordinary (six sided)  dice  per player of two different colors
• a  Fiasco Playset
• a copy of the  Fiasco Tilt Table  and the  Fiasco Aftermath Table
• pen and paper
Set-up[edit]
The players first select the playset and roll dice (four per player—two light, two dark). The
players then go around the table, taking turns to choose a die. Using the value of the die, the
player selects a group, or an element of a previously selected group, from a list provided by
the playset to establish relationships (one for each adjacent player), needs, objects, and
locations. Each pair of adjacent players has a defined relationship and one other element (a
need, an object, or a location; that is central to the relationship). After all dice have been
used, they are all returned to a central pool to be used as the game progresses.
After all dice values have been used, each player will share with each neighbor:
• One relationship
• One need, object, or location
The players then discuss who their characters are, what they are called, and how they relate
to each other, and the objects, needs, and locations their characters share. Once this is
decided Act One is ready to begin.

Act One[edit]
In Act One, for each player's turn, she or he may choose either to Establish or to Resolve.
Should the player choose to Establish, the content of the scene—people, place, conflict—is
determined by the player. Doing this allows the player to set up the scene as they wish.
However, the resolution of the scene or conflict is determined by the other players, who will
choose a light die (a good resolution) or a dark die (a bad resolution) to give to the player in
the middle of the scene. The player must accept the resolution, acting out or narrating events
accordingly.
Alternatively, should the player choose to Resolve, the other players dictate the
circumstances of the scene: the characters with whom the
and no preparation".[1] It is billed as "A game of powerful ambition and poor impulse control"
and "inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong—films like Blood
Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan."[2]

Fiasco was the winner of the eleventh Diana Jones Award[3] and has been one of the featured
games on Tabletop.[4]

Contents

1 Setting/playsets

2 Gameplay

2.1 Set-up

2.2 Act One

2.3 The Tilt and Act Two

2.4 The Aftermath

3 History and reception

3.1 Awards

4 The Fiasco Companion

5 Card-based edition

6 References

7 External links

Setting/playsets

Fiasco is designed to simulate the caper-gone-wrong subgenre of film.[5] It shares creative

control of the story among the players, even when determining who each player's character is.
[6] Themes of the game include black comedy, and poor impulse control.[5]

Although there is no one standard setting, each game of Fiasco uses a "playset" that indicates
the setting of that specific game. The core rulebook contains playsets for Main Street (small
town America), Boomtown (The Wild West), Tales from Suburbia, and The Ice (McMurdo Station,
Antarctica). Bully Pulpit Games also released a free Playset of the Month on their website.[7]
These, and many more, are available for free online on the Bully Pulpit Games website,[8] with
many fan-made playsets available online, as well.[9][10][11] The Fiasco Companion provides
additional advice on creating playsets.[12]

Each playset consists of a basic description of the setting and:

six groups of six relationships between two characters in the setting

six groups of six needs to be shared by two of the characters

six groups of six notable objects

six groups of six notable locations

Each group and each element within that group is numbered from one to six.

Gameplay

Fiasco is a role-playing game with no GM, the game being set up before the action starts. The
game is for three to five players, and takes between one[12] and three[2] hours, including two
acts and an aftermath. The things required to play are:
four ordinary (six sided) dice per player of two different colors

a Fiasco Playset

a copy of the Fiasco Tilt Table and the Fiasco Aftermath Table

pen and paper

Set-up

The players first select the playset and roll dice (four per player—two light, two dark). The
players then go around the table, taking turns to choose a die. Using the value of the die, the
player selects a group, or an element of a previously selected group, from a list provided by the
playset to establish relationships (one for each adjacent player), needs, objects, and locations.
Each pair of adjacent players has a defined relationship and one other element (a need, an
object, or a location; that is central to the relationship). After all dice have been used, they are all
returned to a central pool to be used as the game progresses.

After all dice values have been used, each player will share with each neighbor:

One relationship

One need, object, or location

The players then discuss who their characters are, what they are called, and how they relate to
each other, and the objects, needs, and locations their characters share. Once this is decided Act
One is ready to begin.

Act One

In Act One, for each player's turn, she or he may choose either to Establish or to Resolve.

Should the player choose to Establish, the content of the scene—people, place, conflict—is
determined by the player. Doing this allows the player to set up the scene as they wish. However,
the resolution of the scene or conflict is determined by the other players, who will choose a light
die (a good resolution) or a dark die (a bad resolution) to give to the player in the middle of the
scene. The player must accept the resolution, acting out or narrating events accordingly.
Alternatively, should the player choose to Resolve, the other players dictate the circumstances of
the scene: the characters with whom the player's character will interact, where it happens, and
what the conflict within the scene is. Choosing this option gives the player control of the
resolution, unlike the Establish option.

In Act One, at the conclusion of a player's scene, she or he selects another player and gives that
person the Resolution die. After each player has had two scenes, half the dice are exhausted and
Act One ends.

The Tilt and Act Two

Between Act One and Act Two is the "Tilt"—the incident that is the heart of the story. To
determine who selects the Tilt elements, all players roll their dice (if they have any). Same-
colored die values are added together and the lower total is subtracted from the greater. The
player with the highest total for dark dice and the player with highest total for light dice then roll
all unassigned dice. As when setting up the game, these two players each select one group (such
as "Tragedy" or "Failure") on the Tilt Table using the values from the rolled, unassigned dice.
Using the remaining die values, the two players choose an element from the other's chosen
group ("Death, out of the blue" or "A tiny mistake leads to ruin"), thus establishing the "tilt"
element of the story.

After the Tilt has been established, Act Two progresses in the same way as Act One, with each
player deciding whether to Establish or Resolve scenes in the same order as Act One. Typically,
the selected Tilt elements will come into play immediately, but this is not always the case. In
some games, the Tilt elements will not show up until the climax of the story, where they will
alter the fates of the characters. Also, along with the new Tilt elements introduced, the biggest
difference in Act Two is that instead of giving away the Resolution die, the player keeps it. If
there were mostly positive resolutions in Act One, there will, by necessity, be mostly negative
resolutions in Act Two.

The Aftermath

After all the dice are exhausted—each player having had four scenes—everyone rolls the dice
they have collected, just like when determining who chooses the Tilt element, and consults the
Aftermath table to determine whether their characters has a positive or negative outcome, is
dead, or is "worse than dead".
Finally, after a player figures out her or his character's fate, the Aftermath is played out. Going
around the table, each player takes a turn to narrate a short scene, formed into a montage, for
their character until all players run out of dice. At that point, the game is finished.

History and reception

Fiasco started as a game called Hat Creek, about the life and death of a town in the American
West, with the relationships created as a part of that game becoming the eventual basis for
Fiasco.[13] The game itself took 14 months to playtest,[14] and used over 70 playtesters in 13
groups.[2] In November 2008 Jason Morningstar asked for interested playtesters on the story-
games forum,[15] and Fiasco was published in December 2009.[1]

Reception was initially very positive in the RPG community, with Fiasco winning one Indie RPG
award at GenCon 2010 and being runner up in three other categories.[16] as well as being
shortlisted for an Origins Award.[16] A year later, at GenCon 2011, Fiasco became only the
fourth RPG to win the Diana Jones award.[3]

Reviews in the mainstream press have generally been positive; its review, Eurogamer called it
"Criminally good fun" and "The funniest game I've ever played".[17] Wired said, "Fiasco is hands
down one of the best RPGs I have ever played. ... if you despise collaborative gaming experiences
and want very traditional RPG mechanics, Fiasco is going to be a poor fit." and noted that "Fiasco
can easily venture in to areas that may make certain players uncomfortable and so it’s important
for people, especially those unfamiliar with each other, to discuss potential limits and taboo
subjects before the start of any game."[18] The Sydney Morning Herald noted that "Clearly, this
is not a game for everyone. Players with some experience in improvisation, storytelling, or
theatre would get the most enjoyment from it, but many people who have never tried acting or
writing before could still have a lot of fun."[19]

Awards

2009 Indie RPG Awards - Best Support - Winner [20]

2010 Golden Geek RPG of the Year Nominee[16]

2010 Origins Awards Best Roleplaying Game Nominee[16]

2011 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming - Winner[3]

The Fiasco Companion

The Fiasco Companion is the first supplement for Fiasco. It contains advice for playing and
hacking Fiasco and contains four playsets and alternative tilt and aftermath tables. It also
contains notes and reflections from players of Fiasco including Wil Wheaton and John Rogers.

The Fiasco Companion has won the following awards:

2011 Indie RPG Awards Supplement of the Year[21]

2011 Indie RPG Awards Best Support[22]

2012 Golden Geek Best Supplement[23]

Card-based edition

In August 2019, Bully Pulpit Games introduced a card-based version of the game, which they
launched on Kickstarter. [24] Instead of dice and index cards, the boxed version uses decks of
playing cards for playsets and an engine deck.

References

"Bully Pulpit Games Fiasco page".

Fiasco ISBN 978-1-934859-39-1

Diana Jones Award announcement

Fiasco Set Up, Fiasco Part 1, Fiasco Part 2 - Tabletop

The Set-Up the Tilt and the Aftermath Role-playing the Caper-Gone-Wrong Film in Fiasco by
Felan Parker, Presented at the 2012 Film Studies Association of Canada annual conference

Enjoying a Fiasco, Bitch Magazine

2009 Indy RPG Awards best Support explanation

The Fiasco Playests page Archived 2013-12-06 at the Wayback Machine on the Bully Pulpit
Games website

Fiascoplaysets.com
RPG Geek listing of playsets

Claw Claw Peck listing of Fiasco playsets

The Fiasco Companion, ISBN 978-1-934859-40-7, p63-78

"Molevitten interview with Jason Morningstar". March 2010.

"Reddit AMA with Bully Pulpit Games".

"Story Games playtest report".

RPG Geek profile

"Fiasco Review: Criminally good fun". Eurogamer.

"Fiasco - an in depth RPG review". Wired.

Dominguez, James (July 2, 2013). "Tabletop Review: Fiasco". Sydney Morning Herald.

"Indie RPG Awards 2009 - best support". Archived from the original on 22 August 2010.

"Indie RPG Awards 2011 Supplement of the Year". Archived from the original on 11 December
2013.

"Indie RPG Awards 2011 Best Support". Archived from the original on 11 December 2013.

Fiasco Companion RPG Geek Profile

"Fiasco: The Cinematic Game of Plans Gone Wrong". Kickstarter. Retrieved 8 August 2019.

External links

Official homepage of the Fiasco role-playing game.

Fiasco playsets hosted on the publisher's website

Categories: Indie role-playing gamesRole-playing games introduced in 2009

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This page was last edited on 15 December 2019, at 20:29 (UTC).